Month: November 2007

Before we start this tutorial i suggest you download the tutorial contents file with all the required image needed to complete the tutorial.DOWNLOAD IT HERE

Once you have downloaded the above file open up “snowflakes.jpg” and resize to what ever size your wallpaper is intended for, i shall be using a small resolution for the purpose of this tutorial.

Create a circle in the center of your canvas fill with the color #356699, Now click your circle layer whilst holding down ctrl to make a selection. Select your paint brush tool and change the settings to the ones in the picture below. Make sure your brush is 100px SOFT brush.

Now brush at the bottom of the orb. Then brush a single cirlce at the top somewhere.

Now add these layer styles.

Now set layer opacity to 75%. You should now have something like this.

Now create a white cirlce within the orb, add a layer mask and drag a linear gradient over it to blend it in. Duplicate this layer and flip it vertically and place at the bottom of the orb. So now you should have to white circles acting as hightlights. Your image should look like this.

Open up “logo.jpg” and drag the windows logo onto your canvas, with the pen tool or your desired cutting tool remove the background. Resize the logo to fit into the middle of your orb. Then add these layer styles.

Your image should look like this.

Now open up “hat.jpg” and drag to your canvas, again cut the background from the hat with your prefered cutting tool. Once you have removed the background click the layer whilst hold ctrl on the keyboard to make a selection, now goto “select > modify > contract” contract the selection by 1 pixel, then goto “filter > blur > guassian blur” blur by about 3 pixels. Now resize your hat to fit the orb like in the image below.

Now create a black circle underneath your hat to act as a shadow, lower the opacity to suit also blur by about 2 pixels.

Now select a nice looking font and add some text. Add these layer styles to your text.

Set layer opacity to 50% and blending mode to soft light. Now select your background layer and add some noise by going to “filter > disort > noise”.

Now merge both layers together, and goto “filter > render > lighting effects” use the settings below. (sorry about quality of image)

You should now have something like this.

Now select the rounded rectangle tool and make these 3 set of boxes.

Once you have made the boxes set the all the layers opacity to 40% and add these layer styles.

You should now have something like this.

Add your site title and logo.

Still with the text tool add your navigation text and main text.

Now using adobes custom shapes add a selection of small arrows next your navigation text and 2 big small arrows at the very bottom (see picture below).

Under “welcome to our site” add a small rectangle fill with a dark shade of blue/grey.

Now take abit of time to add a brief description of your website.

Now select the color white and select a grunge brush, add abit of grunge into your header on the right side.

Add your text for your other 2 sections and add a third section at the bottom labeled “featured work”.

Now select a couple of pictures of your choice for your work and recent entry.

Now were going add abit of shading to our header and navigation, starting with the navigation, select the color white and the rectangle marquee tool. Draw a rectangle across half of the navigation and fill with white.

With your white box layer selected, hold ctrl and click on your navigation, now goto “select > inverse” then hit the delete key on the keyboard. you should be left with this.

Now add a layer mask and select a reflected gradient, drag the gradient over the left side from the middle so both the left side and right side smooth into the box. do the same with the header. you should have something like this.